Saints coach Sean Payton moonlighting as caddie

Wednesday

Jul 3, 2013 at 7:18 PM

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton is moonlighting this week as Ryan Palmer’s caddie at the Greenbrier Classic. With the start of NFL training camp later this month, Payton said he was planning to spend a week relaxing at The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia. One thing led to another, and Payton ended up agreeing to help Palmer, who gave his regular PGA Tour caddie the week off.

John RabyAP Sports Writer

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton is moonlighting this week as Ryan Palmer’s caddie at the Greenbrier Classic. With the start of NFL training camp later this month, Payton said he was planning to spend a week relaxing at The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia. One thing led to another, and Payton ended up agreeing to help Palmer, who gave his regular PGA Tour caddie the week off. “It’s pretty cool to hear the mindset of one of the great coaches in the game, Super Bowl winning coach,” Palmer said. After two days of participating in practice rounds and pro-am events, Payton said Wednesday he realized “this isn’t a vacation.” Payton and Palmer are good friends who met in Dallas. They see each other when Palmer plays in the Zurich Classic in Louisiana and they’ve played an occasional round together during the summers. While Payton said he isn’t good at playing golf, he said he’s comfortable with figuring out yardage at the Greenbrier Classic, which starts Thursday. Payton compares being a caddie to visualizing an NFL game through the eyes of a quarterback and said he’s taking the opportunity seriously. “I know what game week feels like for me in the fall, and I know what it will feel like for him and what it does feel like for all these golfers,” Payton said. “Just to be invisible as a caddie and do your job and be supportive, those are the things that I look at as being important for me this week.”To which Palmer added jokingly: “Just shut up and keep up. That’s it.”Palmer, who has four top 10 finishes this season, said other caddies had warm reactions to Payton. While the best work in golf is done in a quiet environment while football’s best work is amid a stadium full of screaming fans, the discipline required to succeed is the same, Payton said. “(There’s) a lot of tedious work that goes for the most part unnoticed,” Payton said. “And it’s pretty interesting to be around this venue and just see how these guys get around the course and what’s going through their mind.” Payton had plenty of time to play golf during his one-year suspension as part of the NFL’s bounty investigation. He was reinstated in January. The Saints went 7-9 last season and missed the playoffs for the first time in four years. “I know our players are looking forward to getting back,” Payton said.

DA: Arrest warrant for 49er Brooks filed in error The Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office erroneously filed an arrest warrant for 49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks after allegations that he repeatedly hit a teammate on the head with a beer bottle, a prosecutor said Wednesday. The district attorney’s office is still investigating the incident and will decide next week whether or not to bring charges, Assistant District Attorney Karyn Sinunu-Towery said. She said there is no outstanding arrest warrant. “We haven’t had time to look at everything we have and make a fair assessment of what went wrong here,” she said. Prosecutors sought the warrant last week to arrest Brooks on suspicion of committing felony assault with a deadly weapon. A judge signed it last Thursday, but the county district attorney’s office asked to have it put on hold the next day, Santa Clara Superior Court spokesman Joe Macaluso said. According to police, Brooks hit teammate Lamar Divens with the bottle three times and then punched him in the face during an early morning argument on June 8. The alleged attack left Divens with a 3-inch cut on his forehead, according to police statements accompanying the warrant application. Brooks, Divens and others had been drinking and went to a bar before returning to Brooks’ house. Divens pretended to throw Brooks’ keys in the grass, though he had actually held onto the keys, prompting the attack, according to the statements. Investigators were told Brooks was intoxicated and had threatened to get a gun, according to the statements. A person who answered the telephone at a number listed for Brooks referred questions seeking comment to the 49ers. The team said in an email that it was aware of the situation, but would not comment for now. Brooks started every regular-season game last season, finishing with 46 tackles, 6.5 sacks, an interception and two forced fumbles.